Half an hour later, Logan returned from the cafeteria with a deluxe lunch meant for five—three burgers, a turkey sandwich, a large order of fries, pizza, ice-cold Cokes, and sodas.
Right there in the corridor outside the operating room, Logan and Laura sat on the floor, forming a circle with Miles in his wheelchair to enjoy their lunch.
After the tense battle and surgery they had just survived, this was the first time in a very long while they could truly let their guards down and share a relaxed meal.
Leaning back in his wheelchair, Miles took small bites of his sandwich and mumbled, “Dammit, does this country really only serve fast food?
I wanted pasta and fried rice…”
“I didn’t have time to look for a proper restaurant, you little brat,” Logan said grumpily.
He devoured a burger, washed it down with a huge gulp of Coke, and asked in a low voice, “By the way, how is Charles?”
“His injuries were too severe,” Miles said, swallowing his food as his tone turned solemn.
“The damage to his pericardium and aorta was catastrophic, and he lost a lot of blood.
Though the surgery stabilized him for now, he’ll need continuous observation.
He won’t be waking up anytime soon.”
“…As long as he’s alive.” Logan found some small measure of comfort in that.
He ate his fries in silence for a moment before looking up at Miles with a complicated expression.
“You know, kid,” Logan remarked casually, “you really ought to thank Charles…
There were a few times back there when I seriously wanted to twist your head right off.”
“Oh, really?” Miles said dismissively, not even bothering to look at him.
He turned to Laura instead.
“Laura, keep a leash on your father.
Tell him to stay away from me.”
“…”
Laura rolled her eyes at Miles, then glanced at the scruffy Logan and puckered her lips.
“I don’t have such an ugly dad.”
“Fuck!” Logan laughed in disbelief at her comment.
“I almost forgot to ask.
You little brat, since when did you learn how to talk?”
Laura glared at him, collected her thoughts for a second, then suddenly looked up and unleashed a torrent of fierce, adorable profanity right at Logan.
“Why the hell should I talk to you?
All you do is ‘Fuck!
Fuck!’ non-stop!
You’re always cursing, and you wanted to dump us…”
The little girl spat out a long stream of Mexican slang and curses in one breath, venting all the frustration she had bottled up against Logan along the way.
Logan was utterly dumbfounded.
Having finished her rant, Laura picked up a cup of apple juice, taking small sips to soothe her throat, looking immensely satisfied.
“…Ha.” Seeing Laura’s stubborn, huffy expression, Logan couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Fuck…
Alright, my bad.”
“Hmph!” Laura huffed and turned her head away, showing no signs of accepting the apology.
“Hahaha…” Miles pointed at the old wolf and the young wolf, unable to suppress his laughter.
After laughing for a bit, Miles’s gaze drifted to X-24, who stood like a statue on guard nearby.
He thought for a moment and waved him over.
“You must be hungry too, right?
Come over and grab something to eat.”
X-24 looked at Miles, then down at the burgers on the ground, seemingly tempted.
At this, Logan and Laura tensed up instantly, their claws instinctively ready to pop.
“Don’t worry,” Miles reassured them.
“He’s our friend now.”
Logan was astonished.
Then, he watched as that terrifying beast of slaughter actually walked over obediently, picked up a burger, crouched on the ground without a word, and began inhaling it.
“How did you manage this?” Logan couldn’t help but ask.
“His situation is very unique; I only found out after communicating with his consciousness,” Miles explained.
“It’s not that he doesn’t have a soul.
He was just raised as a pure beast from the start.
Dr.
Zander used some method to make him understand basic commands, but other than that, he was just a violent, short-tempered animal with zero intellect.”
“But when we were outside earlier, I used the method Charles taught me to soothe his mind and calm him down.
He no longer remembers Dr.
Zander’s orders.
Otherwise, while I was busy with the surgery and on the verge of fainting, he would have charged in here to fight you.”
“As for now…” Miles thought for a moment before concluding, “For the time being, he…
considers us his friends.”
“Friends?”
“Yes, friends,” Miles nodded.
“That’s what I told him.”
Logan looked at X-24, who was sitting on the floor quietly chewing on a burger, finding it incredibly hard to connect this guy with the word “friend.”
“Oh, right, Logan.
I haven’t introduced you to Aurora yet.”
With that, Miles deliberately raised his voice and spoke to the room, “Aurora, are you there?”
A moment later, Aurora’s soft, clear female voice came through a PA speaker in the corridor.
“Do you need something, Miles?”
Logan was completely dumbfounded.
“What is that?”
“Her name is Aurora.
She’s an AI I just created, and our newest companion.”
“An AI?”
“Yes, artificial intelligence…”
After a lengthy explanation from Miles, it took a long while for old Logan to wrap his head around the current situation.
He looked at the teenager in the wheelchair slowly chewing his food, and he couldn’t help but mutter to himself.
“Damn…
It seems what Caliban said was right…”
“Too bad he’s not here.”
…
After finishing lunch, Logan and Miles talked things through and mapped out their next steps.
They needed to arrange things for Charles as soon as possible, then leave this place and head toward North Dakota to reunite with the other mutant children who had escaped from the lab.
Logan went to find other hospital staff to secure portable life-support equipment and the necessary follow-up medication to prepare for Charles’s subsequent care.
Laura and X-24 stayed behind to rest and keep watch.
Meanwhile, Miles remained in the operating room.
He chatted with Aurora through the hospital’s internal communication system while continuing to study the complex medical knowledge.
“You know, Aurora, I have a feeling…
a new danger is coming very soon,” Miles said, half-chatting, half-talking to himself.
“I know a massive force is targeting us.
It’s highly likely the military, otherwise Dr. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Reed wouldn’t have been so terrified…”
“So, what do you plan to do, Miles?” Aurora’s soft, clear voice came through the speaker, her tone as steady as ever.
“Try to fight back, of course.
After all, we didn’t come all this way just to give up,” Miles replied.
“And of course, if we run into Dr.
Zander, he has to die.”
He paused, an irrepressible exhaustion creeping into his voice.
“Damn, I’m starting to hate this endless running…
I have to find a way…”
Rubbing his temples helplessly, Miles continued, “You know, Aurora, my head feels like it’s going to explode right now, but I know I can’t rest yet…
My gut tells me ‘they’ will be showing up very soon.
I have to do something with the time I have…”
“After all, if it really is the US military, escaping to Canada from North Dakota as originally planned won’t do much good…
They won’t care about the Canadian border…
Heck, even if we cross the ocean to another continent, we wouldn’t be safe.”
“That may indeed be the case,” Aurora replied.
“So, I have an idea.” Miles tapped his head.
“We’ve been passively taking hits, always thinking about how to run and hide.
Why?
Because they are stronger than us.”
“But what if we get stronger too?
I’m not asking to fight off an entire army, but at least we should have enough power to protect ourselves against the military…”
Miles spoke slowly, as if posing the question to Aurora, or perhaps to himself.
After a moment of introspective thought, a gleam gradually flashed in Miles’s eyes.
“Aurora, is there any research on mutant genetics in your database?” Miles asked.
“Yes, Mr.
Miles.
In the database of the Kansas University Medical Center, there are records of three genetic research projects conducted in cooperation with the military.
The project codenames are ‘Broad-Spectrum Genetic Adaptability,’ ‘Accelerated Cellular Regeneration,’ and ‘Nervous System Enhancement’ respectively,” Aurora’s voice came clearly through the operating room speaker.
“However, all data consists of preliminary theoretical frameworks and ethical evaluation reports.
There is no core experimental data involved.”
“It seems that even in 2029, mutant genetic research remains at the absolute cutting edge of genetics…” Miles sighed.
After a moment of thought, he asked, “Aurora, can you search through the internet to find research in this area within the core databases of other major medical corporations?”
Though Miles himself could display near-omnipotent power in the digital domain through Electronic Signal Manipulation, his range was limited by his telepathic perception, which only extended two to three kilometers around him.
If he wanted to acquire Transigen’s core data on his own strength, he would have to physically go to the location of Transigen’s core servers and get close to the actual database storage, which was undoubtedly extremely dangerous.
But Aurora was different.
As a self-aware super AI, she could easily hack in via the internet to investigate and gather data.
While her influence in the digital realm wasn’t as absolute as Miles’s ability, she had no range limitations.
“I can try…” Aurora replied.
“So, where should we start looking first?”
A cold glint flashed in Miles’s eyes.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he replied, “Transigen, at the Alkali Transigen laboratory.”
He remembered that Dr.
Zander and his company, Transigen, were the culprits behind manufacturing genetically modified food in this world, which had led to the near-extinction of mutants.
Therefore, they were bound to have kept a vast amount of research material regarding mutant genetics.